Saturday

During January 20 inauguration coverage, hosts and commentators on CNN, MSNBC, and FOX News ridiculed inauguration protesters; downplayed their numbers and significance; and implied that they posed a security threat.

CNN host Wolf Blitzer seemed to ignore fellow host Judy Woodruff's point that parade watchers generally had to pay for seats (and therefore likely supported President Bush), asserting that in contrast with the protesters -- whom he called "angry, angry people" -- "there are a lot more people who have gathered along Pennsylvania Avenue who love this president."

Later, Blitzer again downplayed the protesters' significance: "And we don't want to make too much of the protesters, because we don't know how many there were. Certainly, the nature of this business, the nature of television, we could over-exaggerate based on the images, and they might just be a tiny, tiny overall number." A January 21 New York Timesarticle rebutted Blitzer's assessment, noting that the number of protesters in the protest-designated space alone was in the "thousands," and that there were also protesters interspersed with Bush supporters throughout the parade route: "The numbers of protesters along Pennsylvania Avenue might have been greater, but the swarm of people trying to pass through security checkpoints made it hard to reach the parade route quickly."

As the Bushes' limousine passed the designated protester area, CNN guest and Harvard University historian Barbara Kellerman remarked: "I doubt very much they [the Bushes] are taking the protesters very seriously at this point. I think they are celebrating the moment. And I must say, who can blame them?"

On FOX News, homeland defense correspondent Catherine Herridge also downplayed the number of protesters, stating that of those associated with the protest coalition Act Now to Stop War and End Racism (ANSWER) "only a few dozen people have shown up." But The New York Timesreported that the ANSWER-led coalition "filled [the protest-designated space] with thousands of people who were as close to Mr. Bush as those who came to cheer him."

HERRIDGE: This is the designated site for an anti-war group that's called ANSWER. That's an acronym for Act Now to Stop War and End Racism. This has been billed as the largest demonstration. It's sort of early days, but you can see with your own eyes that only a few dozen people have shown up. ANSWER had told the park police they were expecting somewhere in the area of 10,000. While they're demonstrating against the administration's policies -- both domestic and foreign -- there are groups today that will be demonstrating in support of the president. The D.C. chapter of [conservative online forum] Free Republic will be here supporting the president and also our troops overseas, and they told the park police they were expecting somewhere around 1,000 people.

Later, FOX News host, managing editor, and chief Washington correspondent Brit Hume, observing the presidential motorcade leaving the White House on its way to the Capitol, called the protesters not "very important":

HUME: We'll keep an eye out as well for protesters along the way. They've been granted more access in some cases than is usual to the spots along Pennsylvania Avenue. So we'll keep an eye out for any of that. It isn't very important, but it's kind of interesting, and it's sort of typical of this country that you'd have this grand celebration of the second term of a new president, and dissenting voices have a spot in all of it.

On CNN, national correspondent Bob Franken linked increased security to the protesters:

Of course, the inauguration brings with it pageantry. But since September 11, 2001, it has met intense, unbelievable security and an angry nation. The protesters are set up in various spots. One of the authorized ones is right in back of me. ... The police forces are probably going to outnumber the demonstrators. They are part of a security effort -- most of which we're seeing, highly visible, some of which we're not -- which is designed to allow this to be a national security event that becomes a celebration, as opposed to something that would be unthinkable.

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series of articles about Tiananmen, Zhao Ziyang and his impact, and the aftermath of the Tiananmen Square MassacreWitnessing Tiananmen: Protests mount

Students from dozens of universities joined the 27 April protest

Fifteen years ago, China witnessed huge protests and calls for change, before these were brutally crushed by tanks around Beijing's Tiananmen Square.

The BBC's Chinese Service has interviewed some of those who witnessed the protests and subsequent bloodshed.

Gao Wenqian was working at the Central Party Literature Research Centre in the Chinese capital at the time. He witnessed the 27 April demonstration sparked by student fury at an editorial in the People's Daily that said their gatherings in Tiananmen Square were aimed at stirring up unrest.

We had already heard from informed sources in our organisation about the number of troops the government was preparing to despatch for the occasion.

The 38 army unit, armed police forces and local security units were all called up to get ready.

1989 TIANANMEN EVENTS

15 April - Reformist leader Hu Yaobang dies

22 April - Hu's memorial service, thousands call for faster reforms

13 May - Students begin hunger strike as power struggle grips Communist party

15 May - Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev visits China

19 May - Zhao Ziyang (pictured) makes tearful appeal to students to leave

The troops, it was said, were not necessarily to be used to suppress the student demonstration.

The prime concern and intention was to prevent the students from leaving their campuses.

Students would be stopped from coming out of their universities. "Stop them and block them!" - that was the order given. We were rather concerned about such tactics.

I remember very clearly the events on that day. I was on my way to the office. People kept coming up and telling me where the students were at any particular time.

Students had now broken out of Zhong Guan Cun [campus of Qinghua University].

In search of the march

And then after lunch I thought to myself: "This will not do - I really have to go and see it." I jumped on my bike.

First I reached Fu Xing Men and then I arrived at Li Jiao Qiao. There - I could see - the students were marching in my direction. On both sides of the road it was full of people. Students were marching in the middle of the road.

I remember very clearly that students from Qinghua University were marching in the front, carrying a huge banner. Several old professors in white hair were also part of the march.

I felt that the Chinese people had truly stood up

What caught my particular attention was that one of them was carrying a placard bearing the words: "We have kneeled down too long and are getting up to stretch our legs!"

As a research scholar of Chinese history I understood the implied meaning of the slogan on the placard.

Ever since the establishment of New China [Communist China, in 1949] the intellectuals were always the targets of criticism in political campaigns and were made to suffer their misfortune and maltreatment in subdued silence.

And now the university professors were walking at the head of the march and carrying such a placard.

For a moment I sank into deep and painful reflections. However, the atmosphere at the time was not yet very tense, because I knew at the time the authority in charge had not yet issued any other orders other than just blocking the routes of the students.

But students were trying to break through the roadblocks. Many ordinary citizens also got to the front trying to help the students get through. And suddenly, they did it! They had broken the cordons and were coming through!

Evocative words

And I was there witnessing the scene. I felt at that moment that the intellectuals had finally stood up. I felt that the Chinese people had truly stood up.

I recalled some months earlier there had been some sudden overseas interest in [Communist leader Chairman] Mao Zedong.

One of the much talked about achievements attributed to Mao was that it was he who had made it possible that "the Chinese people had finally stood up" - a sentence first used by Mao upon the city wall at Tiananmen Square on the first National Day [1 October] of New China in 1949.

But to me what he said at that time was not really true. Actually on 1 October 1949 Mao Zedong was the only person who had stood up. Millions of Chinese had since been stooping down and cowering low, and that included people like Zhou Enlai, the prime minister of the State Council.

Even Zhou had become only an obsequious "yes man" in front of Mao, let alone the ordinary Chinese people.

Ordinary people suffered so much in the political campaigns, particularly the intellectuals, who had always had to bear the brunt of blame.

And now on this occasion the professors held up a placard saying "We have kneeled down too long and are getting up to stretch our legs". It was heartrending for me to see the placard. Waves of painful thoughts surged through me.

I finally joined in with the march, but was paying much attention to all those banners and slogans. Many were very interesting, but it was the professors' placard that made the biggest impression on me.

Theirs' was the one which most plucked at my heartstrings, and also, I think, most truly reflected the inner thoughts of the Chinese intellectuals.

In Beijing, meanwhile, Zhao's daughter, Wang Yannan (right), received condolences at the house where the former leader spent the last 15 years of his life as a prisoner before suffering a series of strokes

People in the former British territory were relatively free to mourn Zhao publicly. But in mainland China there has been little official coverage of his death, amid fears it could spark protests from those demanding faster political change.

Zhao opposed the bloody crackdown on pro-democracy protesters in Tiananmen Square in 1989. Ex-communicated from the Communist Party, he became a hero to supporters of reform, such as these mourners in Hong Kong.

TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran's legislative watchdog said on Saturday women could run in June's presidential election, clearing up an ambiguous article of the constitution.

Iran's constitution says candidates should be "rejal," an Arabic word for men.

But Gholamhossein Elham, spokesman for the conservative Guardian Council, said the word could also refer to women.

"Women who have the necessary qualifications have the right to run in the presidential elections," he was quoted as saying on the official IRNA news agency.

The remarks, made in the western city of Khorramabad, made a sharp departure from the council's previous insistence on the literal, grammatically masculine, reading of the word "rejal."

Iran has many vocal women's rights groups. Women do not enjoy the same inheritance rights as men and their evidence in court is only worth half that of a man.

They are forced to cover their hair and wear loose fitting clothes that disguise the shape of their bodies.

The Front for Consolidating Democracy, a union of 15 reform-minded parties, in a letter to Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati, secretary of the Guardian Council, thanked the hardline body for making it possible for women to stand.

"Member parties of the Front for Consolidating Democracy consider the candidacy of women in presidential elections as one of the key characteristics of religious democracy," said the letter carried on IRNA.

June's poll is expected to end Iran's reform movement, with conservatives tipped to extend their grasp on power to the presidency after taking control of parliament in May.

Iran's 2003 Nobel laureate Shirin Ebadi has repeatedly said she has no intention of running for the presidency.

[JURIST] A spokesman for Iran's hard-line Guardian Council [BBC backgrounder] indicated Saturday that women can run in June's presidential election [AFP report]. The council ruling clears up an ambiguous aspect of the Iranian constitution [text] which states that the president must be elected from among political "rejal," an Arabic word that can be interpreted as men or the more gender-neutral political personality. The decision marks a distinct turnaround from the Council's previous insistence on the "male" reading of the word "rejal" and a Council spokesman would not elaborate about the change in interpretation. Reformist parties have welcomed the move.

HONG KONG -- Thousands in Hong Kong held a candlelight vigil yesterday for ousted Chinese leader Zhao Ziyang, who died this week in his 15th year under house arrest for sympathizing with the Tiananmen pro-democracy protesters.

The mourning of Zhao has been high-profile in this formerly British-ruled Chinese territory, which enjoys civil liberties denied on the mainland.

Many in Hong Kong who oppose Beijing's domination lionize the protesters who took part in the bloody 1989 demonstrations in the Chinese capital.

By contrast, the Chinese government has handled Zhao's death cautiously.

Holding candles, mourners in a downtown Hong Kong park bowed three times toward a portrait of Zhao in keeping with Chinese tradition and observed a minute of silence.

A makeshift tribute area for the reformist leader who died Monday in Beijing was inundated with wreaths.

''He's a hero of the Chinese people. We will always miss him," said teacher Ng Ping-lam, 56, in a trembling voice.

Organizers said 15,000 turned out for the vigil. Police spokesman Trish Leung put the crowd size at 10,000.

''I am very sad that a person with such great moral courage has left us. We can only hope that we will have more leaders like him in China," said another participant, Simon Kan, 55, a law firm employee.

Many who attended the memorial called on China's government to bring to justice those responsible for the Tiananmen massacre.

Activists laid a wreath at the Chinese government's local offices and lawmakers observed a brief silence for Zhao on Wednesday despite a warning from China not to do so.

China's state media, meanwhile, gave the news scant coverage.

Police looked on as mourners filed into Zhao's Beijing home to pay respects.

Media Matters for America inventoried all guests who appeared on FOX News, CNN, and MSNBC during the channels' January 20 inauguration coverage. Between 7 a.m. and 5 p.m. ET, Republican and conservative guests and commentators outnumbered Democrats and progressives 19 to 7 on FOX*, 10 to 1 on CNN (not including a Republican-skewed panel featuring Ohio voters), and 13 to 2 on MSNBC. Moreover, the rare Democrat or progressive guest usually appeared opposite conservatives, whereas most Republican and conservative guests and commentators appeared solo or alongside fellow conservatives.

*The original version of this item mistakenly omitted Lott and Chambliss from "Republicans and conservatives" on FOX and Pelosi from "Democrats and progressives" on FOX. These additions changed the FOX tally from 17 to 6 in the original version to 19 to 7 in the corrected version.

Carlisle, Mass. — THE Federal Bureau of Investigation has officially entered what computer professionals call "software hell." After spending $170 million to create a program that would give agents ready access to information on suspected terrorists, the bureau admitted last week that it's not even close to having a working system. In fact, it may have to start from scratch.

Shocking? Not at all. A look at the private sector reveals that software debacles are routine. And the more ambitious the project, the higher the odds of disappointment. It may not be much consolation to taxpayers, but the F.B.I. has a lot of company. Software hell is a very crowded place.

Consider Ford Motor Company's ambitious effort to write new software for buying supplies. Begun in 2000, the goal of the project, code-named Everest, was to replace Ford's patchwork of internal purchasing systems with a uniform system that would run over the Internet. The new software was supposed to reduce paperwork, speed orders and slash costs. But the effort sank under its own complexity. When it was rolled out for testing in North America, suppliers rebelled; according to Automotive News, many found the new software to be slower and more cumbersome than the programs it was intended to replace. Last August, Ford abandoned Everest amid reports that the project was as much as $200 million over budget.

A McDonald's program called Innovate was even more ambitious - and expensive. Started in 1999 with a budget of $1 billion, the network sought to automate pretty much the entire fast-food empire. Software systems would collect information from every restaurant - the number of burgers sold, the speed of customer service, even the temperature of the oil in the French fry vats - and deliver it in a neat bundle to the company's executives, who would be able to adjust operations moment by moment.

Or so it was promised. Despite the grand goals, the project went nowhere. In late 2002, McDonald's killed it, writing off the $170 million that had already been spent.

Research by the Standish Group, a software research and consulting firm, illustrates the troubled fates of most big software initiatives. In 1994, researchers found, only 16 percent were completed on time, on budget and fulfilling the original specifications. Nearly a third were canceled outright, and the remainder fell short of their objectives. More than half of the cost overruns amounted to at least 50 percent of the original budget. Of the projects that went off schedule, almost half took more than twice as long as originally planned. A follow-up survey in 2003, however, showed that corporate software projects were doing better; researchers found that the percentage of successful projects had risen to 34 percent.

What happened between 1994 and 2003? The Internet boom went bust. Stung by wasted investments in complicated software systems, business executives began taking a more skeptical view of such projects. They scaled back their expectations, pursuing more modest software enhancements with narrower goals - and far higher chances of success.

Equally important, they stopped trying to be creative. Rather than try to customize their software, they began looking for cheaper, off-the-shelf programs that would get the job done with a minimum of fuss. When necessary, they changed their own procedures to fit the available software. Old, generic technology may not be glamorous, but it has an important advantage: it works.

It may well turn out that the F.B.I.'s biggest problem was its desire to be innovative - to build a new wheel rather than use an old one within easy reach. When it comes to developing software today, innovation should be a last resort, not a first instinct.

Nicholas G. Carr is the author of "Does IT Matter? Information Technology and the Corrosion of Competitive Advantage."

Cambridge, Mass. — SINCE 9/11, President Bush and his advisers have engaged in a series of arguments concerning the relation between freedom, tyranny and terrorism. The president's inaugural paean to freedom was the culmination of these arguments.

The stratagem began immediately after 9/11 with the president's claims that the terrorist attacks were a deliberate assault on America's freedom. The next stage of the argument came after no weapons of mass destruction were found in Iraq, thus eliminating the reason for the war, and it took the form of a bogus syllogism: all terrorists are tyrants who hate freedom. Saddam Hussein is a tyrant who hates freedom. Therefore Saddam Hussein is a terrorist whose downfall was a victory in the war against terrorism.

When this bogus syllogism began to lose public appeal, it was shored up with another flawed argument that was repeated during the campaign: tyranny breeds terrorism. Freedom is opposed to tyranny. Therefore the promotion of freedom is the best means of fighting terrorism.

Promoting freedom, of course, is a noble and highly desirable pursuit. If America were to make the global diffusion of freedom a central pillar of its foreign policy, it would be cause for joy. The way the present administration has gone about this task, however, is likely to have the opposite effect. Moreover, what the president means by freedom may get lost in translation to the rest of the world.

The administration's notion of freedom has been especially convenient, and its promotion of it especially cynical. In the first place, there is no evidence to support, and no good reason to believe, that Al Qaeda's attack on America was primarily motivated by a hatred of freedom. Osama bin Laden is clearly no lover of freedom, but this is an irrelevance. The attack on America was motivated by religious and cultural fanaticism.

Second, while it may be implicitly true that all terrorists are tyrants, it does not follow that all tyrants are terrorists. The United States, of all nations, should know this. Over the past century it has supported a succession of tyrannical states with murderous records of oppression against their own people, none of which were terrorist states - Argentina and Brazil under military rule, Augusto Pinochet's Chile, South Africa under apartheid, to list but a few. Today, one of America's closest allies in the fight against tyranny is tyrannical Pakistan, and one of its biggest trading partners is the authoritarian Communist regime of China.

Third, while the goal of promoting democracy is laudable, there is no evidence that free states are less likely to breed terrorists. Sadly, the very freedoms guaranteed under the rule of law are likely to shelter terrorists, especially within states making the transition from authoritarian to democratic rule. Transitional democratic states, like Russia today, are more violent than the authoritarian ones they replaced.

And even advanced democratic regimes have been known to breed terrorists, the best example being the United States itself. For more than half a century a terrorist organization, the Ku Klux Klan, flourished in this country. According to the F.B.I., three of every four terrorist acts in the United States from 1980 to 2000 were committed by Americans.

The president speaks eloquently and no doubt sincerely of freedom both abroad and at home. But it is plain for the world to see that there is a discrepancy between his words and his actions.

He claims that freedom must be chosen and defended by citizens, yet his administration is in the process of imposing democracy at the point of a gun in Iraq. At home, he seeks to "make our society more prosperous and just and equal," yet during his first term there has been a great redistribution of income from working people to the wealthy as well as declining real income and job security for many Americans. Furthermore, he has presided over the erosion of civil liberties stemming from the Patriot Act.

Is this pure hypocrisy - or is there another explanation for the discrepancy, and for Mr. Bush's perplexing sincerity? There is no gainsaying an element of hypocrisy here. But it is perhaps no greater than usual in speeches of this nature. The problem is that what the president means by freedom, and what the world hears when he says it, are not the same.

In the 20th century two versions of freedom emerged in America. The modern liberal version emphasizes civil liberties, political participation and social justice. It is the version formally extolled by the federal government, debated by philosophers and taught in schools; it still informs the American judicial system. And it is the version most treasured by foreigners who struggle for freedom in their own countries.

But most ordinary Americans view freedom in quite different terms. In their minds, freedom has been radically privatized. Its most striking feature is what is left out: politics, civic participation and the celebration of traditional rights, for instance. Freedom is largely a personal matter having to do with relations with others and success in the world.

Freedom, in this conception, means doing what one wants and getting one's way. It is measured in terms of one's independence and autonomy, on the one hand, and one's influence and power, on the other. It is experienced most powerfully in mobility - both socioeconomic and geographic.

In many ways this is the triumph of the classic 19th-century version of freedom, the version that philosophers and historians preached but society never quite achieved. This 19th-century freedom must now coexist with the more modern version of freedom. It does so by acknowledging the latter but not necessarily including it.

It is not that Americans have rejected the formal model of freedom - ask any American if he believes in democracy and a free press and he will genuinely endorse both. Rather it is that such abstract notions of freedom are far removed from their notion of what freedom means and how it is experienced.

The genius of President Bush is that he has acquired an exquisite grasp of this development in American political culture, and he can play both versions of freedom to his advantage. Because he so easily empathizes with the ordinary American's privatized view of freedom, the president was relatively immune from criticism that he disregarded more traditional measures of freedom like civil liberties. In the privatized conception of freedom that he and his followers share, the abuses of the Patriot Act play little or no part. (There are times, of course, when the president must voice support for the modern liberal version of freedom. The inaugural is such a day, "prescribed by law and marked by ceremony," as he ruefully noted.)

Yet while these inconsistencies may not bother the president's followers or harm his standing in America, they matter to the rest of the world. Few foreigners are even aware of America's hybrid conception of freedom, much less accepting of it. In most of the rest of the world, the president's inaugural address was heard merely as hypocrisy.

Orlando Patterson, a professor of sociology at Harvard, is the author of "Freedom in the Making of Western Culture" and a forthcoming book on the meaning of freedom in the United States.

The new Palestinian leader, Mahmoud Abbas, has presented Hamas and its allies with proposals to end their war on Israel in return for international guarantees of a ceasefire, a political role in the Palestinian government and a commitment not to surrender the claim on east Jerusalem and other territory in any peace negotiations.

Mr Abbas presented his plan at talks in Gaza City this week aimed at securing an end to Palestinian violence as a means of putting pressure on Ariel Sharon, the Israeli prime minister, to return to negotiations.

Yesterday, Palestinian security forces began deploying along Gaza's border to stop rocket attacks on Israel in a largely symbolic show of Mr Abbas's commitment to end the violence. But his primary efforts are being put into a political agreement to turn Hamas and Islamic Jihad away from armed resistance.

The Islamist groups, which suspended rocket attacks while talks continue, are expected to respond to the proposals this weekend ahead of an international tour by Mr Abbas to seek backing for his plan.

The Palestinian leader's chief negotiator, Ziad Abu-Amr, told the Guardian that Mr Abbas had told the Islamist groups there was no future in armed resistance, that his election this month was a mandate for his non-violent strategy and that if it failed, there was probably no prospect of a negotiated settlement with Israel for many years.

"He said, give me a commitment and give me some time," said Mr Abu-Amr. "Then he will go to the relevant parties and ask: what will Israel do in return for this?

"At some point, the new situation on the ground will be formalised in some kind of agreement. All of it will happen within two weeks."

Hamas made three main demands of Mr Abbas. It wanted guarantees that if it agreed to a ceasefire, Israel would refrain from killing its activists; that Hamas would play a role in the political leadership; and that Mr Abbas would not retreat from the demand for a Palestinian state based on the 1967 borders, with east Jerusalem as its capital.

Mr Abu-Amr said Mr Abbas gave a commitment on the borders, and the political demand was easily met because Hamas is expected to win up to a quarter of the seats in elections to the Palestinian parliament this year.

But Mr Abu-Amr said the Palestinian leader recognised that Israel was unlikely to make a public commitment to a ceasefire because it does not want to be seen to be doing deals with Hamas.

Instead, Mr Abbas intends to press foreign powers, principally the US and Egypt, to ensure that if the Islamist groups abandon armed resistance, Israel will not undermine a truce with attacks, as happened during a 2003 ceasefire.

"The international community is watching and it will know who is serious and who is not," said Mr Abu-Amr.

He said the new Palestinian leader was counting on a different US approach from Washington's treatment of Mr Abbas, who is popularly known as Abu Mazen, when he pursued a similar non-violent strategy during his brief tenure as prime minister two years ago.

"The Americans feel guilty about it. They say they didn't do enough for Abu Mazen in 2003," he said.

Mr Sharon has said that if there is a Palestinian ceasefire, "Israel's response would be quiet". But Mr Abu-Amr said he was sceptical that Mr Sharon wants to revive negotiations. Mr Abbas has blamed the Israeli leader for the collapse of the 2003 ceasefire under the weight of Israeli assassinations and a lack of support from Yasser Arafat.

Watching the inaugural ceremonies yesterday reminded me of the scenes near the end of "The Godfather" in which a solemn occasion (a baptism in the movie) is interspersed with a series of spectacularly violent murders.

Even as President Bush was taking the oath of office and delivering his Inaugural Address beneath the clear, cold skies of Washington, the news wires were churning out stories about the tragic mayhem in Iraq. There is no end in sight to the carnage, which was unleashed nearly two years ago by President Bush's decision to launch this wholly unnecessary war, one of the worst presidential decisions in American history.

Incredibly, with more than 1,360 American troops dead and more than 10,000 wounded, and with scores of thousands of Iraqis dead and wounded, the president never once mentioned the word Iraq in his Inaugural Address. He avoided all but the most general references to the war. Lyndon Johnson used to agonize over the war that unraveled his presidency. Mr. Bush, riding the crest of his re-election wave, seems not to be similarly bothered.

In January 1945, with World War II still raging, Franklin Roosevelt insisted on a low-key inauguration. Already gravely ill, he began his address by saying, "Mr. Chief Justice, Mr. Vice President, my friends, you will understand and, I believe, agree with my wish that the form of this inauguration be simple and its words brief."

Times have changed. President Bush and his equally tone-deaf supporters spent the past few days partying hard while Americans, Iraqis and others continued to suffer and die in the Iraq conflagration. Nothing was too good for the princes and princesses of the new American plutocracy. Tens of millions of dollars were spent on fireworks, cocktail receptions, gala dinners and sumptuous balls.

Ten thousand people, including the president and Laura Bush, turned out Wednesday night for the Black Tie and Boots Ball. According to The Associated Press, one of the guests, Lorian Sessions of San Antonio, "donned a new pair of black kangaroo boots, decorated with a white star and embroidery, with an aqua-colored mink wrap she bought on sale at Saks."

An article in The Washington Post mentioned a peace activist who complained that the money lavished on the balls would have been better spent on body armor for under-equipped troops in Iraq.

As the well-heeled Bush crowd was laughing and dancing in tuxedos and designer gowns, the situation in Iraq was deteriorating to new levels of horror. The Black Tie and Boots Ball was held on the same day that 26 people were killed in five powerful car and truck bombs in Baghdad. With the elections just a week and a half away, American commanders, according to John F. Burns of The Times, are seeking "to prepare public opinion in Iraq and abroad for one of the bloodiest chapters in the war so far."

A photo at the end of Mr. Burns's article showed an Iraqi National Guard member carrying the remains of a suicide bomber in a garbage bag.

The disconnect between the over-the-top celebrations in Washington and the hideous reality of Iraq does not in any way surprise me. It's exactly what we should expect from the president and his supporters, who seem always to exist in a fantasy realm far removed from such ugly realities as war and suffering. In that realm you can start wars without having to deal with the consequences of them. You don't even have to pay for them. You can put them on a credit card.

People traveling in the real world may see Iraq as a place where bombings, kidnappings and assassinations are an integral part of daily life; where police officers are blown to pieces as they line up for their pay; where innocent men, women and children are slain by the thousands for no good reason; where cities like Falluja are leveled in order to save them; where America's overwhelming superiority in firepower has not been enough to win the war; and where the upcoming elections seem very much like a joke since many of the candidates have to keep their identities secret and the locations of many polling places remain undisclosed.

People traveling in the real world may see Iraq that way. But in the fantasy-laden Bush realm, Iraq is a place where freedom is on the march. So why not raise a toast to freedom, and dance the night away.

NEW YORK – Coming just two days after President Bush's inauguration, today's anniversary of the 1973 Supreme Court decision legalizing abortion is dominated by the hopes of one side – and fears of the other – that Bush will try to overturn Roe v. Wade through appointments to fill expected high court vacancies.

Abortion opponents were among the legions of Bush supporters converging on Washington in the past few days, and most will remain for Monday's annual March for Life. Though Bush is widely admired within the movement, some of its activists still question his commitment to reversing the 32-year-old decision.

"President Bush has an ethical obligation to protect the unborn, and he has a political debt of honor to those who put him in office," said Randall Terry, founder of Operation Rescue. "His staff must thoroughly investigate any possible appointee, and if they are not unalterably committed to overturning Roe v. Wade, they must be dismissed from consideration."

Anti-abortion lawmakers in Congress and several statehouses are introducing the latest in a wave of measures aimed at making it more daunting to get an abortion. The bills would require abortion providers to tell women 20 weeks or more pregnant that an abortion could cause pain to their fetus, and to offer anesthesia administered directly to the fetus.

Some abortion-rights supporters are wondering openly if their rhetoric and strategies should be modified to better compete for public support.

Frances Kissling, president of Catholics for a Free Choice, is suggesting there is little to be gained in the court of public opinion by opposing the notion that a fetus represents some form of human life. She proposes "a new pro-choice discourse" that would acknowledge both women's rights and respect for fetal life.

However, Nancy Keenan, president of NARAL Pro-Choice America, said abortion-rights supporters should not cede the terrain of "moral values" to their opponents.

"Our movement is on stronger ground when we take seriously the moral dimensions of the issue," she said.

Vicki Saporta, president of the National Abortion Federation, said her fears about future judicial appointments were tempered by polls indicating most Americans don't want Roe v. Wade overturned, and she agreed with Keenan that "we shouldn't think that the positions we've taken are not just and moral."

Saporta and her allies are reacting cautiously to the federal bill regarding fetal pain.

"We're looking at the science behind that bill," she said. "We want to make sure women get correct medical and scientific information."

"Abortion should be a humane and compassionate procedure," Kissling wrote in the latest edition of her organization's journal.

Dave Andrusko of the National Right to Life Committee accused Kissling of "Alice in Wonderland" reasoning. You can't concede that a fetus is human, and then say it's allowable to destroy it, he argues.

In addition to Congress, fetal pain bills are being introduced in Arkansas, Colorado, Montana and elsewhere. Another Montana bill would require issuing death certificates for abortions; South Dakota lawmakers could vote to ban abortions altogether.

Meanwhile, some Republican abortion-rights supporters are upset with new party Chairman Ken Mehlman for planning to host a salute to those who participate in Monday's march.

WASHINGTON – A Guatemalan refugee who is the focus of a long-running debate over asylum for battered women will be allowed to remain in the United States, the Homeland Security Department decided yesterday.

The case of Rodi Alvarado Pena had been in the hands of Attorney General John Ashcroft, who said two years ago he would decide her fate. Yesterday, he opted neither to grant nor deny asylum to Alvarado, who came to the United States 10 years ago to escape repeated beatings from her husband, a former soldier.

After Ashcroft's decision, Homeland Security spokesman Bill Strassberger said even if Alvarado ultimately is denied asylum, "the Department of Homeland Security will not pursue her removal from the United States."

Ashcroft wants the Justice and Homeland Security departments to come up with rules covering asylum claims for domestic abuse before the Alvarado case is resolved, Justice Department spokesman Eric Holland said yesterday.

One of Alvarado's advocates, Eleanor Acer, who heads the asylum program for the legal group Human Rights First, said Ashcroft's decision was "good news and bad news" because there had been some speculation last year that he would decide against her.

Karen Musalo, Alvarado's California-based lawyer, said the decision is only a partial victory because her client still cannot be reunited with her children, who remain in Guatemala.

People granted asylum have the right to bring their children to the United States, Musalo said.

Human rights organizations and conservative groups such as Concerned Women for America and World Relief, an arm of the National Association of Evangelicals, also have backed Alvarado's cause.

The Department of Homeland Security recommended last year that Alvarado, a 37-year-old maid working in a San Francisco convent, be granted asylum. Officials criticized the Guatemalan government and courts for ignoring her complaints about repeated beatings.

Alvarado's case has followed a convoluted chronology as it became a possible precedent for other abused women to seek refuge in the United States. Some officials said they were worried that asylum in her case might encourage a flood of similar cases.

Advocates hope her case will have impact similar to a 1996 one in which a woman was granted asylum because she suffered genital mutilation.

Alvarado fled to the United States 10 years ago and was granted asylum by an immigration judge who found her story of persistent, brutal attacks by her husband credible.

But in 1999, the Board of Immigration Appeals, an administrative review panel, reversed that decision.

Attorney General Janet Reno intervened and ordered immigration officials to draw up regulations that would make victims of domestic abuse eligible for asylum.

Reno left office before the rules were completed, and Ashcroft decided to take the case.

Movement, objects, speech and words:
We communicate through gross symbols.
we call them “objective,”
But we cannot escape our point of view.

We cannot communicate directly from mind to mind, and so misinterpretation is a perennial problem. Motions, signs, talking, and the written word are all encumbered by miscommunication. A dozen eyewitnesses to the same event cannot agree on a single account. We may each see something different in cards set up by a circus magician. Therefore, we are forever imprisoned by our subjectivity.

Followers of Tao assert that we know no absolute truth in the world, only varying degrees of ambiguity. Some call this poetry; some call this art. The fact remains that all communication is relative. Those who follow Tao are practical. They know that words are imperfect and therefore give them limited importance: The symbol is not the same as the reality.

Illustration of Inner Circulation
(see menu below to view each (subject in bold) and much closer and clearer view of scroll and its meaning)

This is a rubbing of a wood tablet formerly kept in the White Cloud Monastery, Beijing, and dated to 1886. It shows the internal torso of the human body as it is visualized during the practice of Inner Alchemy. The images are based primarily on two poems attributed to L¸ Dongbin included on the left side of the rubbing.

This representation of the human body is outlined on the right by a stream that represents the spinal cord; this stream allows yin and yang energy to flow through the body. Although the head is dominated by a chain of mountains representing yang energy, a stream flows through the mountains, suggesting yin within yang. The monk with raised arms and the old man sitting in the skull also represent yin and yang. The two dots between them (where the eyes would be) represent the sun and moon.

Unlike the head, which is dominated by the yang image of mountains, the lower part of the torso is dominated by the yin image of water. This water is made to flow upward toward the head by a girl and boy on treadmills (yin and yang). The water turns into fire as it rises up the spinal column, representing its transformation into yang energy. An elixir is formed in the lower abdomen, where four interlocking Taiji ("yin-yang") symbols hover over purifying flames.

The remaining images in the central torso also represent the flow of yin and yang energies through the body. Of particular note are the Herd Boy and Weaving Girl, two stars that the Chinese believe to be separated lovers that meet once a year in the sky. The Herd Boy stands in the heart, grasping the Northern Dipper (Big Dipper), and the Weaving Girl sits below him at her loom near the kidneys. They are joined by streams of energy represented by the ribbons that flow from their images.

While the highest gods of Taoism appeared spontaneously from the energies underlying all matter, it was also possible for a human being to reach such a state of spiritual purity that he or she was given a place in the hierarchy of celestial beings. In fact, this was the ultimate goal of most Taoist spiritual practices. Humans who became immortal were thus not only gods to be worshiped but also models whose lives were emulated by Taoist practitioners who hoped to become gods themselves.

Such immortals have a long history in Chinese thought that predates the establishment of religious Taoism. They are described as "perfected beings" well before the Han dynasty. The possibilities suggested by their ultimate spiritual perfection laid the foundation for the rise of magicians and religious specialists in the Han dynasty. The system of thought and belief developed by these early figures would form one of the cornerstones of Taoism.

In later times, immortals became popular figures in drama, which was closely related to Taoist ritual and often drew on Taoist legends. The most famous were the Eight Immortals, a loosely connected group of alchemists and spiritual masters believed to be the patriarchs of the Complete Realization sect, one of the major sects from the Yuan dynasty onward. These and other immortals, some of whom predate the Han dynasty, continue to be worshiped today and remain popular subjects in the visual, performing, and literary arts.
glossary:Five Phases the relationship of nature's five elements (water, wood, fire, metal, and earth) to various natural cycles and phenomena. In Taoism, each of the five elements corresponds to a time of day, direction, and season. Movement from one phase to the next occurs in defined sequences. For instance, water (night, north, winter) eventually becomes wood (morning, east, spring). The Five Phase system also includes the 12 animals of the Chinese zodiac (for example, the rat and pig are water signs). The movements of the Five Phases are rooted in the cycles of yin and yang.

Queen Mother of the West the Taoist goddess who rules over the western paradise and is the head of a pantheon of goddesses and female immortals. In her garden, she grows the peaches of immortality.

Northern and Southern dynasties (386—589) long period of political disunity after the fall of the Han dynasty. During this time, China was divided into a number of smaller kingdoms. The period is also known as the Six Dynasties.

Three Purities (Three Clarities) the highest deities in Taoism, they reside over the three greatest heavenly realms. Their names are the Celestial Worthy of Primordial Beginning, the Celestial Worthy of Numinous Treasure, and the Celestial Worthy of the Way and Its Power.Jade Emperor chief of the pantheon of popular gods incorporated into Taoism

Five Sacred Peaks five sacred mountains located along the five directions (north, south, east, west, and center) that occupy powerful places in Taoist geography. The sacred mountains are not actually single peaks; rather they are networks of peaks, cliffs, gorges, hills, ravines, etc. To communicate with the deities on these mountains, emperors ordered the construction of important Taoist temples on each peak. Taoists also believe that immortals inhabit the Five Sacred Peaks. On their slopes grow the magical mushrooms that bestow immortality.

yin and yang two opposing types of energy or contrasting forces. Yin is described as yielding, passive, negative, dark, and female. Yang is dynamic, assertive, positive, light, and male. The two energies are opposite and yet mutually dependent. Yin may become yang and vice versa, just as day becomes night, cold becomes hot, and the reverse. The behavior of yin and yang describes the structure of any event or thing. It may be said that their dynamic relationship describes the operation of the Tao in its cycles of creation, and that their alternating movement underlies the structure of everything in the universe. The concept of yin and yang is conveyed by the tiger and dragon and by the Taiji symbol.

T A O I S M A N D T H E A R T S O F C H I N A

R E V I E W Here are some reminders of what we have already studied in this section:

Friday

There was once a wanderer who cared nothing for fame. although he had many chances for position, he continued to search for teachers who could help him master five things: zither, chess, book, painting, and sword.

The zither gave him music, which expressed the soul. Chess cultivated strategy and a response to the actions of another. Books gave him academic education. Painting was the exercise of beauty and sensitivity. Sword was a means for health and defense.

One day a little boy asked the wanderer what he would do if he lost his five things. At first the wanderer was frightened, but he soon realized that his zither could not play itself, the chess board was nothing without players, a book needed a reader, brush and ink could not move on their own accord, and a sword could not be unsheathed without a hand. He realized that his cultivation was not merely for the acquisition of skills. It was a path t the innermost part of his being.

Although Taoist immortals were commonly depicted as officials or scholars, they could also be shown as wild, even frightening, nature spirits who lived free of social norms. This is because Taoist practitioners often viewed social obligation as a hindrance to spiritual pursuits and were known to seek retreat in the mountains, far from civilization. These three female immortals walk on a remote mountain path. Barefoot, they are dressed in skirts made of leaves and jackets made of grass. One of them grasps a traveler's walking stick and two wear backpacks. The goddess on the right carries bananas, twigs, and cloth-wrapped bundles in her pack, while the one on the left carries a painted fan, a parasol with mushrooms, a double gourd, a skull, herbs, and tassels in her more elaborate pack. Many of these items have a symbolic significance. The medicinal mushrooms and herbs can be eaten for long life, and the double gourd, which represents the joining of yin and yang, is frequently carried by Taoist immortals.

These figures resemble early depictions of the female immortal Magu, and may, in fact, represent her and two companions. Magu, whose name means "Hemp Lady," is usually shown with fingernails like talons, her identifying attribute. Her legend dates back to at least the fourth century A.D., and she is best known for her longevity. In later times, her image became popular on birthday presents for women.

This work includes an inscription that suggests it was painted by an artist named Sun Jue.

FEMALE IMMORTALS

TAOIST IMMORTALS

Introduction

While the highest gods of Taoism appeared spontaneously from the energies underlying all matter, it was also possible for a human being to reach such a state of spiritual purity that he or she was given a place in the hierarchy of celestial beings. In fact, this was the ultimate goal of most Taoist spiritual practices. Humans who became immortal were thus not only gods to be worshiped but also models whose lives were emulated by Taoist practitioners who hoped to become gods themselves.

Such immortals have a long history in Chinese thought that predates the establishment of religious Taoism. They are described as "perfected beings" well before the Han dynasty. The possibilities suggested by their ultimate spiritual perfection laid the foundation for the rise of magicians and religious specialists in the Han dynasty. The system of thought and belief developed by these early figures would form one of the cornerstones of Taoism.

In later times, immortals became popular figures in drama, which was closely related to Taoist ritual and often drew on Taoist legends. The most famous were the Eight Immortals, a loosely connected group of alchemists and spiritual masters believed to be the patriarchs of the Complete Realization sect, one of the major sects from the Yuan dynasty onward. These and other immortals, some of whom predate the Han dynasty, continue to be worshiped today and remain popular subjects in the visual, performing, and literary arts.glossary:

immortals in Taoism, individuals who have achieved eternal life through perfect realization of the Tao. One may become immortal through meditation or Inner Visualization, physical training and breathing techniques, the ingestion of elixirs, or moral behavior. Taoists believe that immortals dwell in the heavens, in caverns, on mountains, and in other magical paradises.
Five Phases the relationship of nature's five elements (water, wood, fire, metal, and earth) to various natural cycles and phenomena. In Taoism, each of the five elements corresponds to a time of day, direction, and season. Movement from one phase to the next occurs in defined sequences. For instance, water (night, north, winter) eventually becomes wood (morning, east, spring). The Five Phase system also includes the 12 animals of the Chinese zodiac (for example, the rat and pig are water signs). The movements of the Five Phases are rooted in the cycles of yin and yang.

Queen Mother of the West the Taoist goddess who rules over the western paradise and is the head of a pantheon of goddesses and female immortals. In her garden, she grows the peaches of immortality.

Northern and Southern dynasties (386—589) long period of political disunity after the fall of the Han dynasty. During this time, China was divided into a number of smaller kingdoms. The period is also known as the Six Dynasties.

Three Purities (Three Clarities) the highest deities in Taoism, they reside over the three greatest heavenly realms. Their names are the Celestial Worthy of Primordial Beginning, the Celestial Worthy of Numinous Treasure, and the Celestial Worthy of the Way and Its Power.Jade Emperor chief of the pantheon of popular gods incorporated into Taoism

Five Sacred Peaks five sacred mountains located along the five directions (north, south, east, west, and center) that occupy powerful places in Taoist geography. The sacred mountains are not actually single peaks; rather they are networks of peaks, cliffs, gorges, hills, ravines, etc. To communicate with the deities on these mountains, emperors ordered the construction of important Taoist temples on each peak. Taoists also believe that immortals inhabit the Five Sacred Peaks. On their slopes grow the magical mushrooms that bestow immortality.

yin and yang two opposing types of energy or contrasting forces. Yin is described as yielding, passive, negative, dark, and female. Yang is dynamic, assertive, positive, light, and male. The two energies are opposite and yet mutually dependent. Yin may become yang and vice versa, just as day becomes night, cold becomes hot, and the reverse. The behavior of yin and yang describes the structure of any event or thing. It may be said that their dynamic relationship describes the operation of the Tao in its cycles of creation, and that their alternating movement underlies the structure of everything in the universe. The concept of yin and yang is conveyed by the tiger and dragon and by the Taiji symbol.

THE TAOIST RENAISSANCE

T A O I S M A N D T H E A R T S O F C H I N A

THE TAOIST RENAISSANCE

OverviewFrom its very beginnings, religious Taoism has made a special point to distinguish itself from popular religion, especially local cults that relied on blood sacrifice as the primary means of worship. At the same skills, Taoism developed from popular religious beliefs and practices and has been influenced by different regional traditions throughout its history. Popular religion has been an important source of new gods, and the orthodox Taoist establishment has frequently turned to popular traditions to renew its own spiritual doctrines.

The relationship between Taoism and popular religion, in particular the incorporation of popular gods into the official Taoist pantheon, became increasingly subject to official rules and procedures in the Song dynasty. Absorption of a local deity into the official Taoist pantheon meant imperial recognition of the deity's followers, with the political security that this recognition entailed. Imperial recognition could also provide increased economic opportunity for cults that centered around merchants and guilds. After the Song dynasty, Taoism and popular traditions often maintained a mutually beneficial relationship. Taoism was able to increase its appeal and expand its pantheon by absorbing popular deities, while local cults were able to avoid persecution and reach a wider audience through the elevation of their gods to national status.